


A Strange Machine

by halfpastdead



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Death, Discovery, Fear, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, Ghost Zone (Danny Phantom), Ghosts, i don't know how to tag lol, it's a show about ghosts okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-07 07:41:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26469601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfpastdead/pseuds/halfpastdead
Summary: The portal whirred, seemingly never-ending ectoplasmic swirls casting a green glow on the FentonWorks laboratory. It was a sight to behold, a world unseen. It would remain as such for the time being, because Sam and Tucker weren’t looking at the newly-active entryway to the Ghost Zone. They were preoccupied by the remains of their best friend.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 94





	A Strange Machine

\- I -

The portal whirred, seemingly never-ending ectoplasmic swirls casting a green glow on the FentonWorks laboratory. It was a sight to behold, a world unseen. It would remain as such for the time being, because Sam and Tucker weren’t looking at the newly-active entryway to the Ghost Zone.

What used to be Danny lay sprawled on the floor, unconscious. Deep trenches across his face flickered green, like burning coals. Glowing ectoplasm oozed from his charred skin, visible where his hazmat suit had burned away in its failure to protect him. If not for his suit, really, he wouldn’t have been recognizable at all. His hair was matted and stark white. His eyes were wide, empty, and entirely green. Fog poured from them and floated over the steel floor.

The echoes of his agonized screams had disappeared into the walls of the basement. All was deathly quiet now.

Sam took a cautious step toward the gruesome form, but Tucker grabbed her by the wrist.

“Don’t go near it”, he commanded too loudly. His voice shook.

“I think it’s Danny,” she said, voice catching in her throat.

“He’s dead. God, he’s dead.”

Hearing it said out loud, Sam shook free of Tucker’s grasp and rushed to the form’s side. She couldn’t bring herself to touch it.

“Where are his parents?” Sam breathed.

“Wisconsin.” Tucker had turned his gaze away from his friend’s mangled body.

“We’ve gotta call them. We’ve gotta get Jazz—”

A sharp, hollow inhale stopped her. What was left of Danny violently returned to consciousness; he clenched his fists and screwed his empty eyes shut. Sam scrambled away instinctively. Danny raised a shaky hand to his head. He opened his mouth to speak and a cold fog sputtered out. He took another breath. And another. He rolled onto his elbow and slowly opened his eyes. Glowing green irises darted between Sam and Tucker, who stared back speechlessly.

“Danny?” Sam whispered. Danny held one scalded hand in front of his face and watched it vanish and reappear. The molten trenches in his face seemed to dim until they resembled black scars, leaving ectoplasmic residue on his skin. Danny’s arm fell and he collapsed with it, skull thumping hard on the floor. Sam hurried back to his side and Tucker followed carefully. He cringed as she grabbed Danny’s arms and pulled him onto her lap, cradling his head.

“He’s breathing. He’s alive,” she said definitively. Tucker slowly raised his fist and pointed at Danny’s chest. The plaid of Sam’s skirt was visible through his body.

“Are you sure?”

\- II -

Darkness. Sam’s voice.

“Ghosts can’t be that heavy.” Sam spoke definitively, as if she had a clue what real ghosts were like. The floor creaked as Tucker leaned against a wall.

“If he was solid, he wouldn’t have fallen through our hands.”

“Just because you _dropped_ him—”

Danny could hear his friends before he could see them. His eyelids felt weighted, but he forced them open. Sam and Tucker didn’t notice immediately.

“This is serious, Sam! What if we need to help him, y’know... pass on, or something.”

“He isn’t dead!”

“Guys,” Danny wheezed. He was in his room. On his bed. Sam and Tucker kept their distance. Sam opened her mouth to speak but Tucker stepped in front of her.

“My turn.”

Danny furrowed his brow. Tucker approached him slowly, skeptically. He nodded his chin at him. “What’s your name?”

Danny started at him incredulously. “Danny.” Tucker didn’t look convinced. “Fenton,” Danny added quickly. “Danny Fenton.”

“Where do you live?”

“Amity Park.”

“Dream girl?”

Danny huffed. “Paulina.”

Sam crossed her arms. Tucker glanced back at her, shrugging. “It’s still him.”

Danny felt a prickly chill up his spine upon hearing those words.

“I feel different.”

Sam gazed at him solemnly, as though she were looking through him. “You are different.”

He stiffened for a moment, frozen. Then, before Tucker and Sam could stop him, he sprung up from the bed. They protested as he stumbled from his bedroom into the bathroom down the hall. It was dark by now. He flipped on the light switch and tripped, catching himself on the vanity.

Sam and Tucker were right behind him, but he could only notice his own reflection in the mirror. His eyes glowed back at him, an ectoplasmic green. All of him seemed to glow faintly, his white hair especially, which had a slight weightless float to it. Electric green singe marks were scattered across his face. He took all of this in before Sam or Tucker could speak a word. He could only mumble one himself— _No_.

“Danny—” Sam outstretched her arm, but he span around before she could place her hand on his shoulder.

“No. No, no, no, no...” he repeated, clutching his white hair.

“You were in the portal. It turned on, and you screamed, and...” Sam’s voice trailed off. She pressed her lips together, pained by Danny’s reaction.

“I’m dead. I’m dead?” Sam didn’t answer. He looked to Tucker.

“I think so,” he responded quietly.

Danny pulled his knees to his chest. The rest of him remained unmoving as his feet rose from the ground. His legs disappeared into a shadowy tail before his eyes, which he tucked close to his torso, panicked.

“No—” he pleaded again, backing against the wall and up into one of corners of the ceiling.

“He’s really a ghost.” Tucker gasped, eyes wide.

Sam took a few deep breaths. She followed Danny and reached her hand up to him. He looked down at her, helpless. His breath was quick and shaky, his vision blurred. He outstretched his own hand, losing his balance a bit. Sam grabbed it and pulled him down, like a stray balloon. When he was close enough, she wrapped her arms around his torso. He felt weight return to his body as Sam hugged him and his feet landed firmly on the ground once more.

“You’re still here. That’s more than dead,” she insisted. She pushed him an arms-length away, hands on his shoulders as she inspected him. “You’re going to rest. We’re gonna figure this out.”

“Don’t leave. Please, don’t leave.”

“We’re not going anywhere,” Tucker interjected. “We’re with you, man.” Danny nodded. Sam put his arm over her shoulder and together she and Tucker guided him back to bed.

\- III -

“Hold still.” Sam pulled a washcloth from a bowl of warm water and dabbed it across Danny’s face, wiping away ectoplasm from his burns. He cringed.

“I look terrible.”

Tucker looked up from the Fenton Portal schematics. “No offense, but... you should’ve seen yourself a few hours ago.”

“You’re healing fast,” Sam commented. She even smiled a bit as she pulled the washcloth back. “Much better.”

“But still a ghost.”

Sam sighed. She plucked a compact mirror from her backpack and handed it to him. “Yeah. Still a ghost.”

Danny opened the compact and inspected himself. He tugged on his lower eyelid, stuck out his tongue.

“My parents are gonna kill me.”

“Already dead.” Tucker hummed. Sam glared at him. “Oh, come on! What’s life without a little humor?”

Danny raised his eyebrows. “Or death.”

Tucker grinned. “See?”

“Does it still hurt?”

Danny thought for a moment. “No. I feel... okay. I can still feel, so, that’s good, I guess.” He examined a tear on his left glove that had shrunk significantly since he first saw it. As he turned his palm outward, a green flash shot from it and hit one of his model rockets with a sizzle. It fell to the ground, charred and smoking. He jumped and closed his palm, startled. Sam and Tucker stared, wide-eyed.

“Danny?” Tucker’s eyes darted downward. Danny looked down at his waist, where his body ended. The shadowy tail was back, and he was floating above his bed. Danny clenched his jaw and grabbed the shadow in his fist, exasperated.

“I’m a freak.”

Sam nodded, jaw dropped. Tucker shook his head.

“You’re flying, dude! It’s cool!”

“I’m not flying, I’m...” Danny trailed off. He took a deep breath, holding his palms outward for balance. Slowly, he floated across the room. He turned and flew back, a little faster. Too late to stop himself, he wobbled as he tried to avoid hitting the wall. His legs reappeared and he caught his balance, floating in place. He exhaled and smiled shyly, looking to his friends for approval.

“I did it.”

Tucker clapped, thoroughly impressed. Sam bit her lip and extended her hand to help him down. Danny grabbed it, but just as Sam tugged, a white orb sprung from his core and extended across his body. A flash of black hair tumbled down past her and Danny fell to the floor with a thud. He winced and sat up. Danny felt his chest, clutched his white tee shirt. He looked up, Sam stared into his blue eyes. He stuttered, speaking as though it were a question.

“I’m… back.”

**Author's Note:**

> Kinda lame that we never got to see the month of Danny adjusting to his ghost powers, but I guess that's what we're here for. I found this lost lil 3-part fic in my phone notes and thought it cleaned up decent. Hope someone enjoys reading my take on the portal incident! :)


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